Bronx music teacher in running for $1 million Global Teacher Prize

By Michael Gartland

|new york daily news|

Feb 26, 2019 | 6:00 AM

Music teacher Melissa Salguero, at center, is congratulated by her students at PS 48 Joseph R. Drake Elementary School on Monday after the kids learned that Salguero had been nominated for the $1 million Global Teacher Prize for 2019. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)

A Bronx music teacher who didn’t know how she’d continue after her students’ instruments were stolen is now one of 10 worldwide finalists vying for a teaching award — worth $1 million.

Melissa Salguero of PS 48 in Hunts Point is the only finalist from the United States in the running for the 2019 Global Teacher Prize, which she says she’ll use to advocate for music education programs around the U.S. if she wins.

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“I am so honored,” Salguero said Monday. “I struggled with school. One of the places I didn’t struggle was with music. It taught me there’s success in many ways.”

Salguero, 33, began teaching nine years ago at PS 48 after moving to New York from her native Florida. When she arrived, there hadn’t been a music program in the school for 30 years. The only instrument: a lone guitar she brought with her.

“It was just me with a guitar in the beginning, singing ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’” she recalled.

Her perseverance has paid off, but her time at the Joseph R. Drake elementary school hasn’t been without its challenges.

Within two years of jump-starting the school’s music curriculum, Salguero and her students won first place in the Glee music video contest — which meant a $50,000 prize to buy instruments for the students.

Six years ago, an intruder broke into the school and stole the instruments. The following year in 2014, Ellen DeGeneres hosted Salguero on her show and presented her with new instruments and a check for $50,000.